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The FW Awards 2017 Judging Panel

Have you ever been to a fashion awards ceremony on a picnic blanket in a public park? The FW Awards are back for there sixth year. If you’ve never heard of the awards, it’s not surprising. They’re small scale, intimate and hilarious. Big production and celebrity caché do not factor in, and there is not a sit-down dinner, a famous host, entertainment, guest presenters or a DJ and yes, historically they’ve taken place on a picnic blanket in a random park.

There is not a trophy or even a certificate, it’s simply an accolade whittled down by peers within the industry. The 2017 awards will take place somewhere in London in June and the exciting news is the judging panel is now appointed!!!

So the big question is what will they be judging and who are they?

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Best Designer In Association With Candid Magazine Will Be Judged By Hilary Alexander

Hilary Alexander OBE needs no introduction, the two time BFA Journalist of the Year (1997 and 2003) is currently editor-at-large for Hello Fashion Monthly alongside her work as a freelance stylist and broadcaster.

She’s worked at many national newspapers and magazines across the globe and appeared on our screens on a regular basis, and has still found time to work as a visiting professor helping future generations achieve their fashion dreams. It’s no wonder Harold Tillman referred to her as “larger-than-life character” and “workaholic”. Michael Kors calls her “unsinkable”

Diane von Fürstenberg while CFDA President called her an “incredible force” when presenting the CFDA’s special Eugenia Sheppard Media Award to her. Designer Michael Kors who presented the award called her “unsinkable”.

Hilary is also a huge reason that I wanted to become a fashion writer, her work is part of the inspiration that led to my life in fashion.

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Best Independent Designer In Association With Rion Magazine Will Be Judged By Harry The Hippo

The origins of Harry The Hippo are lost in the mists of fashions past but one thing is for sure, he loves fashion as much as he loves chewing grass under water. He dropped out of expanding his mind at Hippo Campus (Yes I’m sorry for that joke) to pursue his passion.

The famed socialite, secret agent, model and fashion critic has taken time off from writing his autobiography “It Ain’t Easy Being Zambezi” to judge the original FW Award. He’s also available for interviews about the awards, but will try to avoid his usual topic of how Attenborough doesn’t feature enough of his species.

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Best Independent Accessory Maker In Association With Ciroc Vodka Will Be Judged By Naomi Isted

Naomi Isted is a TV Presenter, Blogger and Stylist regularly featured in press. She ranks in the top 25 global Fashion and Entertainment Reporters (June 2016) by Linkedin and ranks in the top 100 London Fashion Week Influencers. Her social platforms alone engage with over 800k globally, her global readership and social media following, reaches over 11 million people. Naomi has been cited as a “Fashion Guru” by E ENTERTAINMENT and a “Style Expert” by FEMAIL and a Front Row Style Star by the New York Fashion Times, Irish Independent and Elle UK. Naomi’s high profile styling campaigns include the recent Dreamgirls shoot which opens in the west end Autumn 2016.

Last season Naomi collaborated with the Evening Standard and is a regular commentator on Fashion for the Daily Mail. Naomi’s handbag collection with British design duo Brix & Bailey is launching 2017 to 90 worldwide boutiques “Brix and Bailey By Naomi”. Naomi is Editor in Chief of luxury online magazine Ultimate Lifestylist. Her celebrity beauty TV series Harley St Beauty, currently airs on Physique TV to 27 million homes worldwide. Naomi recently styled and presented fashion campaigns for Suuna Sunglasses, George At Asda, Juicy Couture, Istituto Marangoni along with Red Carpet coverage for E! Naomi and her work has been featured in: Red, Reveal, Elle, NY Fashion Times, Irish Independent Style, E Online, Hello, OK, Mail Online, Belfast Telegraph, MSN and many more global titles.

Best High Street Store In Association With The Grooming Room Will Be Judged By Stefanie Rycraft Jones

Stefanie Jones is a globally celebrated fashion and style expert. As a presenter and producer, she is the face of Fashion One Television, which operates 11 feeds reaching over 120 million viewers across the globe in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and South America, airing on networks including SKY, CNS, Telenet and Belgacom.

Stefanie is also presents her own fashion-focused radio show, and is a digital content creator for her own company, FASHCAST, which covers fashion, beauty and entertainment. Her clients include Estée Lauder, Leona Lewis, Metro, KISS, Smashbox, Donna Ida and more.

For both Fashion One Television and FASHCAST, she has worked with a wealth of famous fashion insiders and Hollywood A-listers including Anna Wintour, Anna Dello Russo, Suzy Menkes, Paul Smith, Mary Katrantzou, Jourdan Dunn, Olivia Palermo, Kate Hudson, Tinie Tempah, Labrinth and Paloma Faith.

*Stefanie is currently the holder of the FW Best Radio Show Award

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Worst High Street Store Will Be Judged By Danielle From Fashionista Barbie

Danielle is better known as Fashionista Barbie the UK blog dedicated to fashion, beauty, lifestyle, the occasional afternoon tea, of course her favourite doll, Barbie!!!

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Best Trend In Association With Forward PR Will Be Judged By Rebekah Roy, Stylist

Rebekah Roy is a London-based fashion stylist and creative director whose work has appeared in magazines throughout Europe, North America and Australia. With unmatched creative talent and unstoppable energy, it’s no wonder Rebekah is one of the world’s most revered stylists. Kicking off her career in London at British Vogue, Rebekah has worked with some of the largest labels in the world and regularly styles for choice magazines and catwalk shows across the globe. She has also worked with celebrities including Kate Moss, David Gandy, Kate Nash, The Feeling, Sophie Ellis Bexter, Daisy Lowe, Kaiser Chiefs, Madness, Becca Dudley and Billy Idol, and on campaigns for corporate giants like Harvey Nichols, Ascot, Hitachi, Samsung and BT. She is creative director of luxury menswear magazine, Candid and fashion director of Disorder Magazine.

Rebekah has been a guest stylist at the Viktor & Rolf exhibit at The Barbican, and regularly sits on judging panels as well as works as a guest lecturer at varied universities and with the British Council on global projects.

Rebekah has over 16 years of experience working in the fashion industry in Toronto, Montreal, Paris and London as a fashion stylist, costume designer, buyer and trend forecaster.

Rebekah has been featured in and on Stylist, The Times, Zink, VOGUE.CO.UK, Mayfair Times and Glamour.com.

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Worst Trend In Association With Farblack Will Be Judged By Courtney Blackman

Courtney is a London-based entrepreneur and is a formidable fixture on the global fashion landscape. She is a regular guest speaker at industry events and is a sought after fashion commentator for televised broadcasts including NBC’s Today Show as well as CNN Style.

Courtney founded one of London’s most well-known PR agencies, Forward PR, in 2004; she founded The Industry in 2011, a private members organisation for fashion professions that meets regularly at Condé Nast. In mid-2015, Courtney sold this venture, but still remains on the advisory board. Courtney and her partner own London-based luxury men’s fashion magazine, Candid, which is sold in 22 countries. Courtney is currently managing the magazine as the editor-in-chief.

As a leading luminary of fashion in the UK, she has been featured in numerous publications including VOGUE.CO.UK, Business of Fashion, Tatler and Stylist.

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Best Accessory In Association With Ciroc Vodka Will Be Judged By Lorna Luxe

Lorna runs the successful fashion blog lornaluxe.com although it’s her instagram @lornaluxe which has garnered most attention despite her rarely ever showing her face. Living by her ‘breathe it all in, luxe it all out’ mantra she shares her day-to-day life in London with a collective of 410K eager fashion and luxury lifestyle enthusiasts.

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Worst Awards Outfit Of The Year In Association With Forward PR Will Be Judged By The Hoxton Fashion Team, Sabrina, David, Elspeth & Sarah

The team from Hoxton Rocking Radio’s Wednesday Morning Fashion show will be taking over the Best Awards Outfit vote this year.

Elspeth has had a varied career on screen and in magazines mixing fashion, music and sports. Shes worked for some of the biggest shows and titles in the country and in addition to Hoxton Fashion presents a music show on the station and as if that wasn’t enough also writes for Candid Magazine.

Sabrina Carder is a 23 year old 90s kid with quirky tendencies from London. As well as sharing her personal style on her site she is also a writer and presenter for Yahoo Style UK. When not writing about the latest fashion trends Sabrina can be found buying 90s items, drinking a single malt or being mistaken for her identical twin. She’s also fluent in acronyms, JSYK.

Sarah is not only a radio star but also one of the countries top stylists and influencers, and as if that wasn’t enough, she also runs her blog. Sarah has a section of the show where she introduces listeners to new labels.

David is the Director of Hoxton Radio and one of Londons top DJ’s, alongside his career in music his love of fashion has led to him creating multiple platforms at the station and via YouTube for the station to bring you not just fashion but a look inside the industry via interviews and videos. He is a reigning FW Awards champion and holds the honour of having interviewed FW’s very own Harry The Hippo more times than any other person.

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Best Awards Outfit Of The Year In Association With Ciroc Vodka Will Be Judged By Prince Cassius

In 2010, Prince competed against thousands of entrants and was shortlisted as one of 10 finalists in Esquire and was in the Top 5 in GQ magazine’s search for Britain’s Best Dressed Men in the UK. Prince Cassius has been featured in many publications such as The NEW YORK Times, GQ, Vogue Italian, The Sunday Times, Tatler Magazine, Company Magazine, Daily Mail, Rugby Ralph Lauren, Metro Newspaper, Evening Standard and more.

In 2011, he turned his attention to television and was part of BBC3’s fashion documentary “Kill it Cut it Use It” which delivered fantastic ratings in May. Right after that appearance he was a Red carpet presenter at the Cannes Film Festival for Fashion TV.

Prince Cassius is a brand ambassador to Austin Reed, Herring shoes and Blogger ambassador to Ralph Lauren Rugby. PrinceCassius.com has received millions of views. He’s a permeant Judge for ‘Austin Reed & Newbury Racecourse’ style challenge and Grand National where he scouts and crowns the best dressed men at the race.

He worked with Ted Baker footwear and launched SS13 ‘JamFro’ Collection and AW13 ‘Cassius’ Collection. JamFro has been extremely popular and already stocked in House of Fraiser, John Lewis, Selfridges, NordStorm stores in USA.

In 2014 he collaborated with Jorg Gray at London Fashion Week. Also a Judge at The Grand National where he filmed for BBC North West, ITV, Channel 4 and was featured from The Daily Mail, The Telegraph, The Mirror, National newspaper and Stylist Magazine.

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The Always Incredible Style Icon In Association With The Grooming Room Will Be Judged By David Benett

Dave Benett began his career in the Seventies, specialising in news and sports photography before concentrating exclusively on the London party scene. During his thirty year career, Dave has created over 300,000 entertainment images for the leading UK national newspapers of all the biggest names on the planet today, ranging from HRH Queen Elizabeth II to the Queen of Pop, Madonna.

He’s responsible for some of the most iconic pictures of the past thirty years, from Liz Hurley in that Versace dress to Liza Minnelli and Princess Diana enjoying a night out together. Because of the exclusivity of his imagery, Dave is a regular contributor to the pages of high fashion magazines such as Vogue, Harpers Bazaar and Tatler, as well as the chief entertainment photographer of the Evening Standard.

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Ethical Fashion Award In Association With The Ethical Fashion Forum Will Be Judged By Harold Tillman CBE & Tamsin Lejeune

Harold Tillman is a retail entrepreneur and investor, awarded a CBE for services to the fashion industry in 2010. Formerly head of heritage brands Jaeger and Aquascutum, he was also the longest serving chairman of the British Fashion Council, a role he held until 2012. In 2006 he set up a £1 million scholarship fund to support students at the London College of Fashion.

Harold is also Chairman and major shareholder in Mysource.io – a tech platform for more ethical fashion business. Mysource.io is the latest fashion business solution developed by the Ethical Fashion Forum. Headed up by CEO, Tamsin Lejeune, this tech platform will help businesses and professionals to source ethically and offer training and resources for more sustainable business practice. Lejeune founded the Ethical Fashion Forum in 2006, launching a platform to support fashion professionals in 2012. In 4 years the site has grown to reach a global audience in 141 countries.

Tamsin Lejeune is the Founder of the Ethical Fashion Forum (EFF), the global industry body for sustainable fashion, and the CEO of Mysource.io, a platform that helps fashion professionals to do business better.

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Best Blog In Association With Century Soho Will Be Judged By Samuel Bensoussan

Blogger and online social media personality who is known for his eponymous lifestyle site. He is particularly known for his Instagram account, where he often posts outfits, style advice, and personal pictures from his own life.

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Best Event In Association With Century Soho Will Be Judged By Jai’me Jan

Fashion boy. Written for The Times, Stylist mag & more. Featured in Evening Standard’s Power 1000 & Tatler. Named 8th UK Top Fashion Insider by The Telegraph.

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Best Radio Show – Elyar

Last year, newcomer Elyar started producing his own music alongside his brother. Their bedroom studio soon grew into a bigger studio space in their backyard. After a year of working on his music at home, the London-based singer offers up an introduction to his sound as he prepares for the release of his first EP.

His debut single “Beautiful Human” reflects the evolving definition of standard pop music. Layering elements of pop and R&B with a bassline that borrows from both Caribbean and African rhythms, Elyar’s debut single opens him up to a world of opportunity. “My only intention with my music is to be true and connect with others in the way my favorite artists connected with me.”

Elyar is a seasonal attendee at both London Fashion Week Men’s and London Fashion Week.